Construction-Roads
Site visit of potential girls’ hostel, meet with staff members and then measure out hostel site and mark out with pegs after discussions with various stakeholders.

Start surveying the District Health site around 10am; first we must locate the beacon from which they triangulate signal (located 12km away). Long and arduous process with chiefs and other community members having to agree on boundary points, once agreed a beacon is erected using concrete and iron rods. After completing survey of District Health site we move to District education site (girls’ hostel) where the process continues; officially we should have had a sketch map of the site completed first and then reapplied for cadastral survey but managed to skip this process by increasing allowances. Finish surveying at 8pm but fuel problems mean we do not get back into Lilongwe till 9.30 and end up staying overnight.

With cadastral survey completed it has to go for checking and then we can apply for lease/title deed. Will begin following the paper trail week beginning 18th.

Liam and I meet with:
Peter Phiri to discuss girls hostel; Two Pac building contractor to discuss hostel project; Dr Vincent O’Neil-Head of development for Irish Aid (for lunch). This was followed by a meeting with Intercity Building contractors, also tendering for hostel construction. Also talk with building contractors; Intercity, Kabros and Brothers who still have outstanding bids for girls’ hostel.

Meet with civil servants and District Commissioners office to receive letter of recommendation for our title deed bid and also other important bits of paper that need rubber stamping.

Travel to Lilongwe by bus to continue the title deeds hunt. There follows a paper chase:
• Hunting for various civil servants, Friday is never the best day to get things done but we very luckily bump into the Surveyor General who remembers us and assures me that he will unblock the process.
• Continue on Monday 18th only to discover we also need a letter of recommendation from the District Commissioner in Mchinji.
• Visit the office of the regional surveyor to collect sketch map for approval of title deed for girl’s hostel. Also try and follow up progress of Title deed app for Chioshya H/C, they are very keen on doing things tomorrow but try and keep up the pressure in the nicest possible way!

Health-Disability
Take a child suffering from meningitis to Mchinji hospital, never ceases to amaze how long it takes for children to start receiving treatment from initial admission when they are obviously critically ill. It takes at least 45min this time!
Evelyne comes to Chimteka once a week:
• With American physio (Casey) and we conduct children’s corner activities with able bodied and disabled youngsters. Very hectic!!
• With Occupational Therapist, physio and sign language/special needs teacher.
• To conduct a workshop on the importance of movement/physiotherapy of those living with Hiv and Aids.
Take 6 patients for outreach in Mchinji provided by Malawi against Physical disability (MAP).

The petrol shortages have ended and now there is no diesel, I therefore have to return Mr Kalipinde (orthopaedic surgeon) to Mchinji on the Motorcycle ambulance along with a sick man. It is a pretty heavy load as Mr K is rather large, but the motorcycle performs well.

Employment –Enterprise
An email was sent (by Peace Corps) suggesting that they urgently needed proposals and a decision would be made very rapidly. The grant deadline is Friday; Francis, Christi and I were very busy putting it together. We completed a grant proposal for Chimteka for a new grinding mill for maize.

Later collect quotation for new grinding mill (Greaves Ruston) and also speak with a man regarding installation and operator training.

Liam purchased and gifted the carpenter some tools such as a battery powered drill and gave some tips on construction of storage shelving / cabinets he is making for us

Education-Recreation
• Children gather for “children’s corner” activities which mainly involves painting and reading the library books (not at the same time). The school is now on holiday and the children are always searching for activities and eagerly participate. Liam gifted art materials to the children’s play group but due to his illness he wasn’t present when they were used – they were well received and the children were delighted to be taking home their artwork to decorate their homes.
• In Lilongwe collect books from the National Library for Chimteka CBO library
• Travel to Senga Bay; on Lake Malawi with 7 CBO members, as agreed with CCS. The trip is 200km from Chimteka and we arrive in the evening, spending a very pleasant time exploring the Lake. A number of the members have never seen the lake before and are excited about the new experience.
• We have had a Korean man called Tim Lee assisting us for the last week; he recently completed his PhD in the USA and has just taken up a teaching post at a German University. He is very keen to get more involved in development (his PhD is in economics) and we discuss various possibilities about him bringing members of his faculty to conduct a “summer camp” at Chimteka next year. He departs on Thursday and is currently staying with Dalton (midwife) at Chioshya.

Nutrition and Food
Collect Likuni phala and Chipondi from Mchinji District Hospital in preparation for Thursday’s CTC program.

Travel to Mchinji to have a fish farming meeting with members of the fisheries ministry. We agree that we will conduct a training next Monday/Tuesday on pond construction and management. Everyone is in agreement that we should only involve those who have a genuine interest for fish farming and therefore decide to keep training to a select few (10-15) who will get most value from the knowledge.

Rush to Mchinji in the hope of buying diesel and also to collect materials for fish farming training on Monday/Tuesday. After a lot of queuing; manage to fill car, get 50 liters for myself and 20 liters for the Fisheries vehicle (for Monday/Tuesday). On the way back to Chimteka collect Evelyne for physiotherapy program.

Water and Sanitation
Conduct CLTS (Community Led Total Sanitaion) follow ups with Francis, Elias (Hsa) and Tim. A number of the villages are making excellent progress, but a number are still taking time to construct latrines. We deliberately travel to the more remote villages who would not expect a visit.

I hope that all villages will have completed the process and could be declared ODF (Open Defecation Free) by middle of August. The involvement of the public health people based in Mchinji has been very disappointing and as I thought after receiving allowances showed no further interest in the program. Keep trying to encourage them to come and monitor progress but get very little response.

News from Chimteka Children Support Ltd
• Liam has been studying the quotes coming in from the 5 contractors chosen to tender for the building of the hostel for the Secondary School Girls and plans to liaise with Catherine on these.
• According to Liam, the Chimteka area is c. 15km by 10km in area – and there are some changes to the accuracy of the map sent by John and Francis – Liam didn’t reach to using the pedometer he took out but will send John a note on how to use it.
• Francis has a fish farm on his land but it is not working – Christi puts it down to construction problems – the development of the fish farm is moving along.
• Liam was highly impressed with John’s performance, the respect he has from the community and reconfirmed the perfect fit with the job etc.
• He was highly impressed with Evelyn’s work and her network of medical colleagues and friends who work long and hard all day Saturday in a voluntary capacity.
• He was impressed with the youth groups who were performing role plays ; one group he saw was acting the theme of wasting cash from cash crops and the other was on how to avoid getting HIV(Aids).